


One Less Hurt

by cartographicalspine



Series: The Meek [5]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Anger Management, Conversations, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-17
Updated: 2018-09-17
Packaged: 2019-07-13 10:17:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16015847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cartographicalspine/pseuds/cartographicalspine
Summary: With training regimens underway at Skyhold, a new kind of tension arises between the Trevelyans, and Mack and Erzi end up discussing Marlise's choice of specialization one uneasy afternoon.





	One Less Hurt

**Author's Note:**

> A pretty simple story about two cousins and the discussion they have one day about why their older cousin Marlise hangs out with Breaker Thram. Erzi is "typically teenager" about it and Mack weathers it as best as he can.

His cousin arrived like thunder, slamming the door hard enough to topple a few books from that shelf he kept meaning to balance. He stalked over to the far wall and raged fire and lightning at it until chunks of plaster and rock began to give way under the assault, leaving surprisingly visible gouges and marks through the ancient warded stones. When he finally stopped to let his head rest against the new grooves he’d worn into the wall, he was breathing hard enough to shudder painfully with every sharp inhale and exhale.

Mack watched him over the top of his eyeglasses, letting his pen rest a moment on the page. It would bleed terribly if he didn’t pick it up soon.

“Erzi,” he said, and that was enough to push him through that terrible, drowning rage, whirling back into life and purpose and motion.

“I am going to stab a man,” Erzi declared with all the tremulous fervor of his young and anguished heart. “I will, after I finish stabbing this wall.”

Mack abandoned his papers and glasses and turned around in his chair to meet his cousin’s scowl, making a show of scanning the empty room before holding his arms outstretched to welcome that impassioned promise.

Erzi balked and faltered, flushing hard from his cheeks to his ears and up his brow.  _“N-not you!”_

Unrelenting, Mack cocked an eyebrow at him, which only made the sputtering and stammering worse.

With a pained groan, Erzi fell onto the bed and buried his face in the sheets and pillows he hadn’t gathered up this morning. “I’m sorry, I didn’t actually mean it. Just stop with that face.”

“I know you didn’t,” Mack said lightly. “Now, what situation is this hypothetical stabbing victim standing in for today?”

Erzi’s words were muffled by the blankets, but after a moment’s thought he believed he heard the words ‘scary dragon elf lady’ somewhere within a particularly crushed pillow.

“Ah, so Marlise’s training begins today.”

“And she won’t  _listen_  to me,” Erzi fumed, lifting his head to glare at him. With his rumpled hair and trembling lip, it was much less impressive than what he was probably going for. “She wants to drink  _dragon blood._  And she’s going to get hurt because she’s being stupid.”

“Because she won’t listen to you?” Mack knelt beside the bed and leaned in, resting his head in his folded arms. “I see I’ve stumbled upon a sore spot. Have you asked for  _her_  reasoning on the matter?”

Erzi sat up and looked away, worrying the blankets between his fingers. “It’s...a stupid reason. She’s not thinking straight.”

“Is it?” Mack knew what Marlise had said; they’d spoken for a long time on the subject, until they were both certain in her resolve to take up this training. But it would be interesting to hear it from Erzi’s mouth, who resisted having to confront such issues if he was not the final voice in the outcome. “I’ve never known her to make an ill-considered decision.”

“She said...she wants to hit harder. She wants to be strong enough to hurt the people who hurt me.” He clenched his hands into fists, tighter, tighter, until his knuckles began to whiten. His eyes became these dark, distant pools whenever he spoke like this, all joy and light gone out in them. “But I don’t want her... she shouldn’t have to get hurt because of me. I can handle it. I can.”

Sometimes, Mack was sure they’d all gone quite mad with the war. None of them had ever been given to such fits of emotion before the Circles fell, and suddenly Erzi was singlehandedly shouldering everyone’s safety and wellbeing while Marlise was wholeheartedly pouring her life and blood out for  _his_  safety and wellbeing, and Mack was left picking up after them once the storm had passed. But they both had their points, and good ones, and neither of them wanted to see it from the other vantage so he supposed that he might as well do it for them. “Have you ever put yourself in her shoes?”

Erzi frowned and folded his hands in his lap, scarred, gentle things for all his raging and power. When he settled like this, it was easy to see the nervous little child of their youth they had been left to love on their own. He really didn’t know just what it meant when he said  _Marlise worries after me_ , not to this depth. And neither did Marlise know exactly why Erzi’s recklessness, which vexed her terribly, existed for her sake to such an extent.

“I...I guess I could,” Erzi tried, but he was resisting every step of the way. “It’s different, though. Marlise is important, she means everything...”

“And you think she doesn’t feel as you do?” Now Mack knew he’d gained some traction, because Erzi had lowered his eyes and worried at his lip thoughtfully, no longer on the verge of saying things that kept Marlise up at night with him, things that were enough to bring her near tears with how terrible they sounded. “Isn’t this why she’s down there right now, suffering through whatever that ‘breaker’ demands of her? Haven't you risked yourself in similar ways for her?”

His cousin fell back in the sheets and covered his face, whining softly when he couldn’t come up with anything to say in response to that.

“Why are you making me think these thoughts?” Erzi moaned through his fingers, pouting when he peeked through to find Mack smiling serenely back at him. “Stop that.”

“And miss out on your impressive attempts to dodge feelings and logic alike?” Mack sat back on his heels to avoid the pillow aimed at his face; it clipped his shoulder and tumbled soundlessly to the floor. “The highlight of my day and the one singular joy in my dull and gray heart? Perish the thought.”

“You suck," Erzi informed him, freeing another pillow and then a blanket to toss his way, along with his favorite old robes, still waiting for thread and needle to repair its ragged tears. "You suck and you're dreadful and you’re the most useless venting partner ever,  _always_. Forever."

"So let it be," Mack finished as though he was at morning prayer and not under an onslaught of bedclothes. The smile hiding behind Erzi's hands, however, told a different story. Perhaps this hadn’t changed things all that much just yet, but at least he wasn’t punishing himself on the outside and inside anymore. For the moment, it was enough. Chuckling, Mack braced himself for the next attack and flung one of the pillows right back in return.

It caught Erzi as he ducked and tumbled back onto the mattress with a gulping, shrieking yelp of a laugh. Mission accomplished.


End file.
